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Media Summary

22/10/2015

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The Independent reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet today with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin, in order to discuss the ongoing wave of violence targeting Israelis. The article says that attacks continued yesterday, including the stabbing of a female soldier near Jerusalem, which left her in a critical condition. The Independent i and Metro both note that United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Netanyahu on Tuesday and remained in the region yesterday to meet with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. Ban called for calm and an end to the bloodshed.

There is widespread coverage of comments made by Netanyahu at a Jerusalem conference prior to his departure for Germany. Illustrating that Palestinian hatred towards Jews precedes the State of Israel, Netanyahu outlined the support given to the Nazis by Palestinian wartime leader, Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. In doing so, he appeared to claim that Husseini persuaded Hitler to exterminate Jews, rather than simply expel them during a 1941 meeting between the two leaders. Accusations that Netanyahu’s account is both historically incorrect and trivializes the Holocaust to make a political point is covered in the Telegraph, Times, Independent, Guardian, Independent i, Daily Mail and Evening Standard.

Commenting in the Guardian, Israeli historian Tom Segev says that political use of the Holocaust is nothing new, but that Netanyahu’s comments come at an “extremely delicate moment” during a “new wave of Palestinian terror.”

The Independent and Daily Mail both cover a complaint made by the BBC’s former Chairman Lord Grade, over the corporation’s “inexcusable” bias against Israel during coverage of the recent violence.

The Guardian online reports that former-Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is being sued in the United States by the family of one of ten Turkish citizens killed whilst trying to prevent Israeli commandos taking over a Gaza-bound protest ship, the Mavi Marmara in 2010. Barak was in office at the time.

The Times, Independent i, Metro and the online edition of the Guardian all report that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has informed the country’s President Hassan Rouhani, that he approves implementation of July’s nuclear deal with the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany). However, Khamenei warned Rouhani to be vigilant of the United States, which he says cannot be trusted.

The Guardian online says that Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister has admitted that the country has sent additional “military advisors” to Syria in order to aid President Assad. Meanwhile, Assad’s meeting with Russia’s President Putin in Moscow is covered by the online editions of the Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Maariv all lead with an apparent case of mistaken identity yesterday evening when a commotion broke out on a Jerusalem bus. A man appeared to confront two soldiers and attempted to seize one of their weapons. Assuming that a terror attack was unfolding, the soldiers shot the man dead, who turned out to be a Jewish Israeli. Israel Radio news suggests that the man was a security guard who raised suspicions by asking the soldiers for identification and an argument ensued. Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Maariv also devote attention to a stabbing attack on a critically-injured female soldier yesterday, during which the assailant was killed by another female soldier.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments which appeared to suggest that Haj Amin al-Husseini had persuaded Hitler to commit attempted genocide lead Haaretz and are covered prominently by Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Maariv.

Israel Hayom says that Netanyahu later clarified that he did not mean to absolve Hitler in any way. However, there is critical commentary from Noah Klinger in Yediot Ahronot, himself a Holocaust survivor, who says, “The mistake that the prime minister made the other day was diabolical as well as crude and ludicrous.” Meanwhile, in Maariv, Ben Caspit concludes that, “Netanyahu doesn’t stop when he should, doesn’t understand that he is crossing lines.”